7-Year-Old Hit In Chest While Target Shooting

A 7-year-old California boy was injured in the chest Saturday while target shooting at a homemade range, Sacramento TV station KCRA reported.

Deputies told KCRA that the boy was shooting at targets with his father on family property while other family members stood behind them and watched. The boy was firing a single-shot .22-caliber bolt action youth rifle with his father's help, according to a release from the El Dorado County Sheriff's Department.

At one point, the boy grabbed his chest in pain, deputies told KCRA. The father then noticed that his son's T-shirt had a small hole in it and his son was bleeding from his chest.

A preliminary investigation determined that pieces of a bullet ricocheted and hit the boy, although deputies told KCRA that the guns were never pointed at any of the people on the shooting range.

The child was airlifted to UC Davis Medical Center and was expected to survive, according to the news station. County detectives were looking into the case.

The accident follows the death of a shooting instructor last week at an Arizona gun range. A 9-year-old girl accidentally shot the instructor, Charles Vacca, in the head while firing an Uzi.